International Advances in Adoption Research for Practice, Gretchen Miller Wrobel and Elsbeth Neil (eds), Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, pp. xxi + 338, ISBN 978 0 470 99818 2 (pb), 24.99

Abstract

On four hot summer days in 2006, a group of researchers from many parts of the world met together at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, to share their thoughts and findings on adoption. This was the Second International Conference on Adoption Research and thirteen of the keynote papers are captured in this book. The organisation of the book is effective: there are two main sections—the first providing the broad brush strokes of historical, political and ecological perspectives and the second outlining the latest findings from key researchers in the field. The first section takes us away from the more familiar territory of the ‘here and now’ and helps us to view the phenomenon of adoption across time and cultural context. David Howe's opening chapter deftly touches on the history and literature of adoption as well as highlighting some of the major contributions that adoption studies have made to our broader understanding of the human condition. The contribution from Palacios proposes an ecological perspective—taking account of the various systems around the adoptee to test out the fullest range of what we know and don't yet know about adoption. This model is particularly supportive to those who work in the field, since it gives a shape to the complex realities of adoption and offers a framework of understanding that is readily transferable into practice.